COCOA BEACH, Fla. — Several drownings this year have prompted the city of Cocoa Beach to beef up patrols on the sand with ATVs. 

Trained firefighters will have more of them to use to help quicker.

Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik may run the city, but after business hours he hits the surf. For 40 years he’s taken to the waves surfing for fun. But a recent surf outing wasn't fun at all. 

"It was pretty quick," Malik said. "I was surfing with a buddy of mine and we were looking at each other, and, you know, we’re like a 150 yards off the coast."

They were caught in a rip current. Their experience kept them calm, and they made their way back in safely. 

"Something we are very familiar with, if you’re not it can be very, very dangerous," he said.

Through the Drown Zero Project, the city is looking to buy more ATVs.

Deputy Chief Justin Grimes, who has been a firefighter for 25 years, worked an incident in the water just last week. 

"This would be First Street South in the area where we had our last water rescue, near drowning," Grimes said.

Fortunately. the man was ok. 

In the last three months the city has seen eight drownings and near drownings — all rip current related. Response time is critical, so adding more, and more powerful ATVs is the route they want to take. 

"This is huge because this is how we pull our jet ski down to the ocean, for years we used a John Deere Gator, which just didn’t have the horsepower," Grimes said.

Mayor Malik is happy to fund the new equipment, especially as tourists not familiar with rips will continue to come to town. 

"It can look real calm and deceiving, but a rip current in a calm ocean is still a dangerous thing if you’re not used to it," he said. 

The request for more ATVs was made by the Cocoa Beach Rotary Club, which oversees the Drown Zero Project life safety stations and preservers dotting the beach.